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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 25, 2018 8:04:37 GMT
Either Ambassadors or else Duke of York's after King Lear, I'd say. Or Trafalgar 1 after Killer Joe. Both the Duke of York's and Trafalgar 1 have had recent Almeida transfers which looked better in their spaces than in Almeida.
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 24, 2018 23:09:41 GMT
Ha well let's not get ahead of ourselves, the Found111 production of BUG bottled it on the nudity front after all....
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 24, 2018 23:08:11 GMT
The worst thing was the constant coughing. It was throughout the performance, clearing of the throat, stifled coughs and maybe a few death rattles. two people left from the middle of the aisle during the performance. They left one before the interval and one after. Most distracting for me, do not know about the actors. I do not know if the coughing was connected to the smoking or if I was in a seat where the coughing was easily heard. I was there this afternoon too and holy effing eff the coughing, the endless endless coughing. It was like watching it in a fricking TB ward, it was SUCH a joke. I'm glad it wasn't just me being driven out of their mind by it. I loved the production though. It is a real masterclass in taking a not particularly outstanding play and crafting something truly exceptional out of it. And Patsy Ferran is on her way to becoming the next Dame Judi Dench, I think. Her performance is complete perfection and deserves to win every award it possibly can. Having not been that fussed by Needham previously (probably due to him being in two Almeida duds), I thought he was lovely here and had nice chemistry with Ferran. Now that Trafalgar 1 has something else booked in, the earliest I think any house is available is June (the Ambassadors, which would be a great fit for the show I think). It will surely come in at some point.
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 24, 2018 22:56:01 GMT
Hmm, saw the William Friedkin film starring Matthew Mcconaughey and Gina Gershon a few years back - good luck to Orlando Bloom (God knows he must need the work) but I’m struggling to picture him in this. I absolutely can see Orlando Bloom in the Emile Hirsch role as the hapless goon who hires the titular Killer and I absolutely thought that's the role he would be playing. Nope. He's in the title role. That's.......bold.
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 21, 2018 23:53:48 GMT
Irons has a throwaway line which explains his accent and diction choice in the VERY LONG HOUR when Manville is absent in the second half, which made me forgive his performance retrospectively. There's a reason why this tends to have the hour long act when Mary is not on stage trimmed down, and while in the right hands that hour can be gripping stuff, here I don't think the hands are quite right....
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 21, 2018 8:13:32 GMT
Ann Treneman likes so little of what she sees, that I often find myself wondering why she bothers to be a theatre critic. Maybe it's Parsley's day job?
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 21, 2018 8:11:35 GMT
I would imagine that's being explored, but it might be stymied by the lack of an available house. The Gielgud, Wyndhams, Coward, Duke of York's, Pinter, Theatre Royal Haymarket, Apollo, Duchess, Lyric, Vaudeville, Ambassadors, none are immediately available. WAIT. Trafalgar Studios 1 isn't programmed after Grinning Man closes on 14th April, which is a week after Summer & Smoke closes at the Almeida. I wonder........ Given that Grinning Man has extended for three weeks now, whatever happens to this, it isn't coming straight in. But then it took Mary Stuart over a year to come in after its Almeida run, so I won't rule anything out. Luckily I have tickets for this Saturday afternoon and am VERY excited about seeing it.
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 19, 2018 22:47:53 GMT
Thanks on both. It was just that the audience was laughing so much that I thought I'd missed something there. What you missed was he asks her to get off his knee because her sitting on his lap has got him, well, over excited. When she moves to sit on the table, Mangan adjusts himself as if he's covering a certain tumescence in the groin region....
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 16, 2018 8:24:34 GMT
I see that the RSC have decided to stick an interval in this production. Current running time is 135mins + interval This would be normal. No? I’ve never seen a Macbeth with no interval. The Carrie Cracknell abomination at the Young Vic had no interval either. People still managed to leave during scene changes though. Be interesting to see what the reviews of this one are like, after the recent drubbing the NT version took. Suspect the critics will use this production to take even more swipes at the Norris version.
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 16, 2018 8:18:42 GMT
Blanchett probably saw Network and thought "nope". And I wouldn't blame her.
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 15, 2018 9:35:32 GMT
Slightly obsessively, I saw on twitter that Lia is Mary Stuart tonight, and since there were rush seats still available, I may have accidentally bought one... And how was it? As a fellow obsessive who has seen it both ways round twice, this enquiring mind needs to know :-)
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 9, 2018 7:54:32 GMT
I would imagine that's being explored, but it might be stymied by the lack of an available house. The Gielgud, Wyndhams, Coward, Duke of York's, Pinter, Theatre Royal Haymarket, Apollo, Duchess, Lyric, Vaudeville, Ambassadors, none are immediately available.
WAIT.
Trafalgar Studios 1 isn't programmed after Grinning Man closes on 14th April, which is a week after Summer & Smoke closes at the Almeida. I wonder........
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Post by popcultureboy on Mar 8, 2018 23:40:33 GMT
Still plenty of seats available. Just got a couple for 31st March. Not any more. Entire run now sold out. Good for them.
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 28, 2018 0:11:01 GMT
I H A T E D Consent but I love me some Ben Chaplin so Cat6's loss is absolutely my gain here.
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 28, 2018 0:07:38 GMT
I'm seeing this at the end of March, I can't wait. The production shots look VERY ATMOSPHERIC and I would crawl over broken glass for Patsy Ferran any day before we even start.
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 17, 2018 9:41:30 GMT
I paid £15 to sit in the Upper Circle for the Garrick season, so for me the best part of £60 is extortionate. Normally when I pay that much I’m in the rear stalls or Circle. My own fault for being away when the priority booking period opened and missing getting the pick of the cheaper seats. There were some £15 seats in the Upper, yes, but my point was the front clear view rows for the Branagh season were £65, which is more than what Lear is charging. Also, being front upper circle in a clear view seat is, I have always thought, a FAR superior experience to being at the back of the stalls in pretty much every venue I've ever been in.
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 17, 2018 9:38:03 GMT
I love the book, think the film adaptation is awful and dear God please don't adapt it again WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS?
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 15, 2018 8:13:57 GMT
Bit the bullet and bought an extortionately-priced seat in the front row of the upper circle. If day seats are a possibility I may end up returning or reselling it. I just don’t want to miss this one! The front row of the upper is £57.50 for Lear. For Mary Stuart it's £55. It's hardly been jacked up in price like the other areas of the house. For the Branagh season at the Garrick the front of the upper was Band A, £65. And the view from the front of the upper in the Dukes is FAR superior to that.
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 14, 2018 8:21:22 GMT
I'm kicking myself now for booking a matinee, as it turns out the running time is, as above, only 1 hour 45 even with an interval. However, I've only booked a £10 seat and when I last (and first) saw this, it was more like 2 hours 30, so on that basis I didn't dare book an evening performance for fear of nodding off - and falling from my perch onto people in the row below. However, as I'm also at Saturday's matinee, I may at last be able to spot a fellow member or two, ie lynette and/or Junie ! I just found the Variety review from the original London run at the Royal Court, where it notes the running time as 2 hours 15 minutes, but calls it underdeveloped and only half a play. So now it's a full 30 minutes shorter, have they actually reworked the text, or, much like the current revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night, is it the full text but delivered faster?
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 14, 2018 8:17:22 GMT
I imagine we will find out on Friday when Baz has the exclusive on it. Again.
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 12, 2018 19:50:34 GMT
Today Tix doing £15 tickets for the pit on certain dates during March - got myself one for the end of the month. Will have to try to take it easy during the day in case I get over excited and keel over during proceedings... Did I miss this? the only ones I could find were rush tickets? It's the Spring Ticket Event, it's a page within the app listing all the show taking part in the event. Julius Caesar is selling mob tickets throughout March on selected dates as part of the event.
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 10, 2018 8:45:36 GMT
So glad I saw this at the intimate Minerva Theatre at Chichester last year for only £48! The prices for this are unbelievable - £100 £125 even £145 for Premium super seats! Still it has to be the last major stage role for McKellen and he is absolutely riveting! There are some seats cheaper than £100 though I imagine they've mostly been snapped up. Still, if we're talking expensive, I would rather pay £100 for over 3 hours of Ian McKellen performing Lear than say £69.75 for 90 minutes of Jonathan Pryce sleepwalking through yet another Florian Zeller play.....
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 9, 2018 9:38:06 GMT
Just a reminder that it is standard level members booking today from 10 a.m. Very straightforward - I was on in about 5 minutes. Pretty good availability for the shows. Me too, booked for all 3 in the £10 seats, took no time at all. Suspect everyone else was trying to get tickets for McKellen. Suspect these won't fly off the shelves at the first instance though, so I hope they have some grade A casting up their sleeves.
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 9, 2018 9:28:35 GMT
Leicester performs the coin toss. He decides each night which of the two he will ask to call the toss, looking at one of them after they bow to each other. He then looks at the actress who wins the toss to be Elizabeth, so the ensemble know which lady to bow to and start the show.
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 7, 2018 8:20:07 GMT
Extra performances announced for Macbeth - dates not loaded into the system yet so not sure when - also extra tix for existing Nine Night performances, on sale dates: Monday 22 January, 8.30am Supporting Cast, Patron, Premier Patron, Benefactor & Olivier Circle Members, Young Patron Premium and Young Patron Ambasadors Tuesday 23 January, 8.30am Priority and Priority Plus Members, and Young Patron Member and Young Patron Associates Wednesday 24 January, 8.30am Advance Members Friday 26 January, 8.30am Public booking Thanx for the heads up, thought they were due a new booking period at the end of this month. And another one will be here any minute as the website now states: "Booking dates for the next season of shows, including The Lehman Trilogy, Translations, Julie and An Octoroon, will be announced in mid February."
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 2, 2018 8:27:32 GMT
As the press release says "it's a clear focus on female writers" and I also said I don't care if the playwrights are 95% female, as long as it is good, the pass mark should always be on quality, not sex, theatre is leaning that way at the moment, so what's controversial about saying that quality should be the governing factor, when staging a play? Oh one moment I did also say I am looking forward to seeing Machinal, as it is one of the most famous plays written and published. I guess what's controversial is you stated the new play they've programmed has you suspecting it's pandering to the gender gap and ticking a box, rather than it might legitimately be good, and that's why it's been programmed. A quick google would have unearthed some great reviews of it from when it was on at Playwright's Horizons. Did you suspect any pandering when Albion was shoehorned in to the previous season? Did that strike you as being programmed for some box ticking? Did you think it might not be any good because a man had written it? Do you now see why your choice of phrasing was a little careless?
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Post by popcultureboy on Jan 24, 2018 8:47:39 GMT
The back rows of the stalls for this are fine though. They've removed rows AA and BB and built the stage out, making the whole space feel much more intimate, and by the time you get to the back rows, there is no such thing as a side view. Wherever you are in the row, you're looking straight on at the full action. Plus you get the added thrill of the two queens walking past you on their way to the stage for the coin toss. So while I'm glad you finally got your row L rush seat and I hope you enjoyed the show, couldileaveyou, I can't agree that U1 is "bad seat in the last row and with an awfully lateral view."
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Post by popcultureboy on Jan 22, 2018 0:50:14 GMT
Also there'd better be an extremely good script-based reason why she has to be fair-skinned..... I imagine the reason is they already cast the mother and aren't savvy enough to do colour blind casting. Honestly though, when they point out that "some tap experience preferred", I couldn't care two hoots what colour skin they want. I won't be going anywhere near it.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jan 22, 2018 0:43:40 GMT
Ross states he is in "every show until Feb 10th". That's not the same thing as "my final show is Feb 10th" now is it?
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Post by popcultureboy on Jan 18, 2018 8:14:53 GMT
Anyone see this last night? Mixed feedback on Twitter from what I can see. I'm going tomorrow night, but the mixed feedback doesn't surprise me. The Flick was HUGELY divisive both here and in NYC, so I wouldn't expect a 3 hour 20 minute first preview of a slow burn sinister play from the same writer to be greeted with unanimous audience praise....
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